Superman Had It Easy
by Scribbler
Summary: [one shot] 'Y'know, we really gotta find a better place to change': Rogue, Walk On The Wild Side.


DISCLAIMER ~ I still don't own the show or the cast members; I just reshuffle their lives to suit my own evil whims.   
  
A/N ~ This came as a result of riding around in my mother's car alongside two sleeping toddlers and 83 degree-F heat. It's set during the events of 'Walk On the Wild Side', and the rest is pretty much self-explanatory. Reviews most definitely encouraged, welcomed - even begged for. Come on, people, throw me a bone.  
  
===================  
  
'Superman Had It Easy' By Scribbler  
  
September 2003  
  
===================  
  
'Y'know, we really gotta find a better place to change' -- Rogue  
  
===================  
  
It is a truth universally acknowledged that girls need at least half an hour to get themselves looking decent in the morning. Or at any other point in the day, for that matter. They also need enough space to stretch their arms, turn around, study the mirror, and ask whether they'd just be better wearing the black thing.  
  
Of course, there are occasions where one or more of these prerequisites are not available. Usually this is no big deal. Girls are adaptable, after all, and can easily cope with bad hair due to lack-of-mirror, or rumpled clothing for one reason or another.  
  
However, everyone has their limits...  
  
_Note to self,_ Rogue thought irritably, grubbing around the floor of the jeep for the holdall, _never trust Tabitha for organisational purposes._ Her hand smacked against something that was simultaneously hard and sharp, and she stifled a yelp only by biting down hard on her tongue. _Damn patience, m'gonna kill her._  
  
"Could you be any slower?" hissed a voice from below.   
  
Rogue counted to ten, straightened up, and hissed back, "Hey, it wasn't *my* idea to leave home in civvies."  
  
Kitty tapped her foot against the concrete, obviously not impressed with the comeback. Her blue eyes darted around intermittently, taking in the shadowy night surrounding them and narrowing at several shifting pools of murk. She didn't offer any further comment, however, and Rogue returned to her search.   
  
The holdall thumped to the ground at the younger girl's feet, closely followed by Rogue herself. She crouched instinctively, as Logan had trained them all into doing during gruelling sessions in the DR. Then she caught Kitty's scornful look at such an action in a skirt, and scooped up the bag, brushing past without so much as a, "Come on."  
  
"Jeez, rude much?" came the irritated whisper. Being in the self-confessed 'bad' part of town after dark clearly wasn't sitting well with Kitty, and she channelled her nervousness into a snarky attitude.   
  
"Ditz," Rogue muttered under her breath, making for the mouth of the dark alleyway in which the jeep was parked. There were scrape-marks all along the wall where Tabitha had miscalculated how much give the space had, and several pairs of wary feline eyes watched the passing duo from the shadows.  
  
The girls slid along the wall and into the lee of a nearby building. It was dilapidated, boards across the windows, and looked as though it might topple over at any moment. Mercifully, it refrained from doing so while they reconvened with their compatriots in a side doorway.   
  
The clandestine spot was, thankfully, just that. Which was just as well, considering there were three other people already hiding in it.  
  
"Tell me again why we're hiding here?" Amara asked in a somewhat quavery voice, tugging at her sleeves and glancing around with wide eyes. She was by no means a well-travelled person, and those places she had visited throughout the course of her life had all truly embodied the word 'plush'. Dark doorways in bad neighbourhoods were something different entirely, and she swallowed so hard that Rogue could see her throat bobbing.   
  
"Ask Tabby," Kitty said, a trifle snippily. She kept her voice to a whisper, however, and her eyes roved ceaselessly.  
  
Tabitha rolled her eyes and popped her gum, leaning back against the padlocked door like she was waiting for a bus. The scent of strawberries filled the air. "You asked for someplace to get changed, and I delivered. S'not my fault you didn't wanna leave the Institute already ready." She smiled slightly at her phrasing, completely missing the dangerous looks sent her way.  
  
Jean cast a wary eye over their surroundings, and Rogue didn't have to be a telepath to register what she was thinking. Jean had automatically adopted a sort-of leadership post amongst them. She wasn't entirely sure how it had happened, since Tabby had the wheels and - it appeared - all the answers, but Jean's word was pretty much law within their little vigilante group. Rogue had the feeling this should irk her more than it did, and scowled at the redhead's next words out of habit more than actual aggression. Though she didn't like to admit it, the district was making her feel decidedly nervy, too.  
  
"We couldn't risk anyone catching us in out outfits and putting two and two together. But did you have to pick *here*, of all places, for a changing room?"  
  
"Hey, The Gap closes at five. Sorry if it doesn't come up to scratch, ladies, but if you'd rather strip off in the street, then be my guests." Tabby arched a sardonic eyebrow, expression belying her words. She rarely got angry about anything, preferring to coast through life on a wave of good feeling. The only time any of them had ever seen her at anything approaching distressed had been when her no good bum of a father rolled into town.   
  
Jean sighed and gestured at the door. While the others kept watch, she stretched out a hand to guide her telekinesis and jiggled the padlock. It remained securely locked, and she tried again, this time with a little more force. Still no action vis-à-vis an entrance.   
  
"It's stuck," she said needlessly.  
  
"Then just break it open," Rogue said deprecatingly. "You got the power. Just smash the thing so we can get this over with."  
  
Jean seemed to consider this for a second. Then she took a step backwards and stretched out her hand again. However, instead of the lock rattling, as they all expected it to, the entire chain threaded through the handle shook and clanked. The noise lasted only a second before the doors wrenched, snapping the chain and slamming open. They caught themselves at the last moment so that they wouldn't crash into the walls too loudly, and then eased the rest of the way.  
  
"Wow," Jean said, a little breathless. "I wasn't sure it would work." She cut her eyes at the other girls, taking in their expressions. "I... still don't have a lot of control if I use a lot of power. I've been working on it, but..." she trailed off.  
  
"Yeah, yeah." Rogue shoved her way through, holdall slung over her shoulder and anxious to just get on with things and out onto the street. Messing around and playing dress-up in old buildings was not what she'd signed on for. "Shall we?" she added over her shoulder, making it sound like an insult more than a question.   
  
The others followed silently, filing into what had once been an old movie theatre, but had now decayed into a husk of its former glory. Thick red carpets lined portions of the floor, but at strategic points it had been ripped away to reveal dangerously bowing floorboards. No solid concrete here, and they paused at the edge of the foyer until Tabby flashed past.  
  
"We're following the leader, the leader, the leader," she sang softly, apparently taking great pleasure in this little exercise. A team player she may have been, but her sense of humour left something to be desired. "We're following the leader, wherever she may go."  
  
"Someone gag me with a shovel," Rogue muttered.  
  
Eventually, after much wending and winding around particularly hazardous pieces of flooring, the fearsome fivesome reached what appeared to be just another door. Tabby opened it with a flourish, revealing a small broom closet, replete with mouldering mop and ancient bucket that looked as though it would spontaneously crumble into dust if they so much as touched it.   
  
Kitty took one look and backed away. "Oh no," she said emphatically, "there is no way you're, like, getting me in there. I absolutely refuse. Point blank. Not doing it. Nu-uh."  
  
Jean sniffed the air and pulled a face. "It *does* smell a little musty. Breathing in those kinds of pores couldn't possibly be good for our health."  
  
Amara said nothing, but peered into the small space with a mixture of curiosity and princessly disgust.   
  
For her part, Tabby only grinned. Honestly, was there nothing this girl found less than amusing? "M'ladies, your boudoir awaits," she said with a chuckle. Then she reached for the holdall. "Whichever way you go about it, *I'm* not about to show my undies to the world. Depressing as this side of town might be, it's not exactly deserted. If you'll remember, that's sort of why we operate in this area the most?"  
  
Rogue tugged the bag out of reach and put on her very best scowl. "I've been in worse places," she said simply, and marched into the closet without another look.   
  
The mop made its exit in unceremonious fashion, being tossed out to jam into the plaster of the opposite wall. The bucket was set down with a little more decorum, so as to prevent din. Miraculously, it stayed in one piece.  
  
"Are we going in one at a time?" Amara asked cautiously. The DR changing area back at the mansion was communal, but the DR changing area wasn't a fusty old closet.   
  
Rogue shot her an unimpressed look. She and Amara were more than teammates, less than friends, but that had never stopped her sharp tongue before. It was rather expected of her to be grouchy, and she lived up to her reputation on these trips. "Worried about your dignity, *Highness*?"  
  
"Dignity, schmignity." Tabby laid a reassuring hand on the younger girl's shoulder, causing Amara to start and look up at her, questioning.   
  
Rogue knew that, back home, it was prohibited for anyone to touch royalty if not of noble blood themselves, and the tactile nature of the Institute had taken quite a bit of getting used to for Amara. She still forgot herself upon occasion, but was nowhere near as bad as she had been when she first arrived and ordered for Roberto's head to be cut off simply because he shook her hand.  
  
Tabby seemed not to notice the look, however, and went on blithely: "You're with us now, kid. Dignity's got nothing to do with it."  
  
"Well, colour me unimpressed," Rogue sniped, and was summarily ignored. She didn't bite, though, being used to it by now. Her bad moods were legendary, and some part of her understood that she was a bitch to be around when ensconced in one. Right now, she might as well have had 'She-Demon' printed across her forehead. "Are we doing his or not? Because if we're not, then I call the passenger seat on the way home. I'm sick of being squished in back."  
  
Jeans sighed, answering for all of them and guiding Amara forward by the elbow in a motherly sort of gesture. She'd taken the new recruit under her wing, of late, and as a complete antithesis to her behaviour when she first arrived at the Institute, Amara seemed more than grateful for it.   
  
"We'd best go in together and just get it over with. No sense in dragging it out longer than we have to. And we *have* all changed together before, so it's not like that's going to make much difference."  
  
Rogue was just intensely glad that the closet went back a little further than it first appeared, allowing her a modicum of extra space in which to change without accidentally brushing skin with anyone. She undressed and dressed again speedily, the light of the flashlight Kitty had liberated from the jeep helping her to avoid flailing limbs and items of lost clothing once the door was pulled to. It seemed that Tabby hadn't really thought things through when picking this spot, and Rogue spent the remainder of the time pressed up against a wall, trying not to unintentionally drain someone.   
  
"Ow!" Kitty exclaimed loudly, to the chorus of several shushes. "Okay, who just stood on my foot?"  
  
"Me," Tabby hissed back, "but only because you have your elbow in my ear."  
  
"That was not my elbow!"  
  
"Sorry," Jean said sheepishly. "I think that might have been me."  
  
"Well you nearly took my earring out, so if you wouldn't mind watching where you put yourself - "  
  
"Yow!"  
  
A suspect crunch, followed by a sigh that sounded very much like Kitty - although it was difficult to tell in the dim light. "Who was it that time?"  
  
"Me," said a small voice that turned out to be Amara. "Sorry, but I stubbed my toe on something. I... think I just put my foot through the wall."  
  
"Wouldn't surprise me." Rogue added her nickel's worth. "This old place looks ready to fall down at any second."  
  
"A very comforting thought when we're all trapped inside a small closet far away from the nearest exit, Rogue," Kitty said, and Rogue could practically *feel* the air move as she rolled her eyes.   
  
"Are you done yet?" Rogue asked impatiently. It was difficult to have an attitude when one was dodging floundering arms and feet, but she did her best. "I think I'm starting to get claustrophobia back here."  
  
"Oh, quit your bellyaching, girl," Tabby admonished cheerfully. "Nearly done. And you should be pleased - trapped in a small space with some of the most beautiful women in all of Bayville. There's a lot of men would kill to be in your place right now."  
  
Rogue saw her preening in a shaft of light and scowled. "I think I'd rather beat myself senseless with a spoon than have to do this again," she deadpanned. Then she added, "A rusty spoon."  
  
"You," Tabby said melodramatically, pointing, "are no fun."  
  
"I checked fun at the door, along with what little dignity I still had left."  
  
"And there's that dignity thing again. Jeez, what is it with you people that you have to be so pompous and dignified all the time? Lighten up. Learn to have a little excitement now and then." she smirked and showed her teeth. "Live dangerously for once."  
  
"What, battling super villains, megalomaniacs and psychic circus psychos isn't living dangerously?" Kitty put in, dragging her leather pants up and buttoning herself into them. They looked like they'd been spray-painted on, and Rogue felt a sudden frission of jealously at Kitty's svelte figure. That is, before she reminded herself that she was too aloof for envy.   
  
"Okay," Tabby allowed, "I'll concede those. But still, you girls have no sense of adventure. Why else would it take helping folk out against criminals to get you out of that stuffy old mansion and away from Xavier's beady little eye like this?"  
  
"The Professor's nice," Amara protested. "He lets us have lots of fun."  
  
"Really? Then why haven't you told him about this set up, then?"  
  
"Why haven't you told the Brotherhood?" Kitty countered, to which Tabby blew a large raspberry.   
  
"Like they care what I'm up to when I'm not taking up the couch? If they haven't already figured it out after all that news coverage and the stolen jeep business, then I'm not gonna tell them."  
  
"Very charitable, I'm sure," Rogue remarked dryly, and breathed a sigh of relief when Jean announced that she was finished. She was the last, and pushed open the door for them all to troop out, transformed.   
  
Rogue had to admit, they were not quite visions, but the leather and sunglasses-at-night look made them seem a heck of a lot more intimidating than before. Amara's little-girl-lost air had gone, replaced by something faintly threatening, in an innocent kind of way; and she'd be damned if Jean didn't look less preppy A-student, more come-here-so-I-can-kick-your-ass hellion.   
  
Tabby slipped on her shades and smiled what could only be described as a... well, a crazy smile. Her shift wasn't quite so dramatic, since she sported a vaguely rebellious look anyway - at least by Bayville standards - but the black leather gave her a decidedly manic edge that matched her driving skills. "We ready to rock?"  
  
Kitty arched an eyebrow, stuffing the last of her things into the holdall and passing it to Rogue to do likewise. "You have definitely been spending too much time around Lance."  
  
"Look who's talking, Miss Meow."  
  
Kitty blinked. "Touché", she said after a moment, putting on her own sunglasses. "Shall we get this show on the road, then?"  
  
Rogue replied by marching towards the exit, following the path they'd walked before and attaining it without falling through the floor to whatever basement lay below. Her boots clicked on broken glass and mortar as she went, crunching through things she really didn't want to look at and generally getting covered in yuk. She abstained from pulling a face, though, instead just rearranging the bag on her shoulder in disgust.  
  
A dead cat lay in the way, and she stepped over it with a grimace. A few flies buzzed out and she waved them away with a gloved hand. "I'll bet Wonder Woman never had to go through this to be a hero."  
  
"Rogue," Amara incongruously chided, "Wonder Woman isn't real, you know."  
  
"I know," Rogue snorted. She'd been the one to tell Amara that comic book characters were just the stuff of fiction, despite the resemblance of their super abilities to those of various mutants. "But if she were, she'd get a frikkin' dressing room, I'll bet."  
  
"Cheer up, girl," Tabby offered optimistically. "Next time we might find someplace better to do the quick-change thing."  
  
"I'm jumping up and down inside. No, really." Rogue sighed and egressed from the building, wiping dirt from her pants and readjusting her hastily slicked-back hair. "All I have to say is, those civilians had better be damn grateful for all of this."  
  
"Perk up, Rogue. It's not that bad," said Jean. "Just think of all the good we're doing. And besides, we might make it to urban legend status yet."  
  
"Wouldn't we need some sort of name for that?" Kitty mused. "Something catchy. Memorable."  
  
"The Bayville Beauties!" Tabby proclaimed proudly, face split in a broad grin.  
  
Rogue only scowled, grousing sotto voice as they made their way back to the jeep, "Damn grateful."  
  
===================  
  
FINIS.  
  
=================== 


End file.
